We Endorse: Collins-Bellamy for Council President, Pineda-Isaac and Rubbo for City Council
On June 22, Yonkers Democrats will be casting their ballots for several important elected offices, including Council President, three other City Council seats, County Legislator and County Clerk. The big race in Yonkers next week is for City Council President. Mike Khader is the incumbent, who is running for re-election. Normally, an incumbent Council President does not have a serious challenger within their own party.
But Khader does have that serious challenger, she is Lakisha Collins-Bellamy. We have been supportive of Khader in the past, but several factors have made us pull back our support, based on conversations with dozens of Yonkers democrats.
First, he does not have the support of any of his colleagues on the City Council, and most important, all four Council democrats are supporting Lakisha over Khader. One prominent democrat told us that this factor, “is like Andrea (Sen. Stewart-Cousins) having no support of the democratic senators in her caucus.”
Second, it is hard to find any elected official that supports Khader’s re-election. Those elected officials who are undecided have questioned what, if anything, Khader has done over the past four years.
Third, members of Khader’s inner circle, and family, do not support him. This includes Assemblyman Nader Sayegh and others.
Fourth, we are concerned how Khader will be effective if he is re-elected, now that the gloves have come off and Khader has accused Mayor Mike Spano of being “100%” behind the recent accusation made against him.
Fifth, the accusations made against Khader and his council presidents office, from female employees should be a concern for everyone. We acknowledge that they are only allegations at this point.
Sixth, most of the support for Khader comes from Yonkers democrats we spoke to who are more fatigued with Mayor Spano and the Spano family, then they are with Khader, which is not a suitable reason to re-elect the Council President
Seventh, We believe that overall, the City of Yonkers has been governed ably and effectively over the past 10 years under Mayor Spano. We had thought that Council President Khader’s independence over the past four years was a benefit to the people. But we are now concerned that Khader’s independence that he touts hasn’t resulted into any meaningful results, and as Mayor Spano was quoted as saying “He (Khader) seems to have an issue with everyone.”
Eighth, threats have been made against members of the Jordanian community that have contributed or supported Collins-Bellamy, and threats have been made against members of the Yonkers Democratic Party that are no longer supporting Khader. This type of bullying should be rejected.
We have been impressed with Lakisha Collins-Bellamy during this campaign, and more impressed with her service to the people of Yonkers and the City that she was born and raised in. Collins-Bellamy serves on the Yonkers Board of Education and she works as an attorney for the Municipal Housing Authority, and serves on the Yonkers Police Reform Commission.
Lakisha has direct experience in three of the most important issues facing Yonkers: education, housing and crime and policing. This experience would serve the people of Yonkers if she is elected.
The narrative that we see in Yonkers, is that overall, City government is working and for the most part, serving the needs of the people. We would like to see that progress continue, but we now see an irreparable split between the Mayor and Council President.
The allegations against Khader are just that, only allegations, but they do not paint a portrait of an elected official that welcomes support. In today’s #metoo climate, the claims made against Khader concerning female employees in his office are concerning to us. And having covered 4 city council presidents over the past 25 years, we are concernedthat Khader doesn’t have the support of the other members of the City Council.
In one mailing, Khader touted himself as an “independent progressive.” We do not know what that means. We now question how Khader can continue to serve the people of Yonkers. Over the past few months, he has lost the confidence and support of not only this newspaper, but of many Yonkers democrats.
Peter Spano is the 3rd candidate on the ballot for Council President. We appreciate Spano’s service to Yonkers in the field of recreation, and raising funds to build new basketball courts and improve parklands. He has proven to have a concern for giving young Yonkers residents an alternative to gangs, and other dangerous alternatives.
Mayor Mike Spano once said that it was important for Yonkers to remove the political drama from their government. Well now that drama has returned for a period, resulting in a series of negative campaign ads, texts, and messages.
We return to the theme in Yonkers of working together—and we believe that Lakisha Collins-Bellamy would best serve the democratic voters in Yonkers as City Council President. We endorse Lakisha Collins-Bellamy for Council President in the democratic Primary June 22.
For the same reasons of working together to continue the progress, We support and endorse City Council Majority Leader Corazon Pineda-Isaac, and Councilman John Rubbo.
Two democrats are running in the 6th Council District, Tim Hodges, and Stella Schwuchow. We leave that decision up to the democrats in that district, with the winner facing Councilman Anthony Merante in November.
In the race for County Legislator in the 16th District, incumbent Christopher Johnson is being challenged by Dwanita Crosby. And in the race for Westchester County Clerk, Yonkers City councilmember Shanae Williams is challenging incumbent County Clerk Tim Idoni.
Johnson has served with County Executive George Latimer and Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins through the past year of a pandemic and has earned re-election.
Williams has run an impressive campaign for County Clerk against Idoni, but we see no reason to remove Idoni, who has presided over a County Clerk’s office that has served the people of Westchester by improving services while cutting costs to the taxpayers.
The decision on all of these races will be determined by the voters of Yonkers. You must be a registered democrat to vote in the Democratic Primary.
